03-06-2025
Trump, DOJ threaten California with legal action, fines after trans athlete's win
Early Tuesday, President Donald Trump promised in a social media post that California will face 'large scale fines.' Trump previously warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that the athlete, AB Hernandez, should not compete because of Trump's executive order seeking to ban transgender athletes from women's sports.
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Although Newsom did not agree to block Hernandez from the championships, the state's high school sports governing body debuted a new policy allowing an additional competitor in events for which Hernandez qualified. 'The CIF believes this pilot entry process achieves the participation opportunities we seek to afford our student-athletes,' the federation said in a statement last week.
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The California Interscholastic Federation and Education Department did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday morning.
Under the new rule, the athletes who scored after Hernandez also medaled. Jillene Wetteland and Lelani Laruelle shared the first-place spot on the podium with Hernandez for the high jump after all three cleared a mark of 5 feet, 7 inches, according to the Associated Press, but Wetteland and Laruelle both logged a failed attempt while Hernandez had no failed attempts.
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Hernandez, a junior from Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California, also shared first place with Kira Gant Hatcher in the triple jump and second place in the long jump with Brooke White, who embraced Hernandez on the podium. 'It made me really emotional seeing how people could be so hateful to a 16-year-old girl,' White told the local CBS station.
The participation of transgender athletes in women's sports is one of several issues to which Dhillon has redirected her civil rights staff to focus on since she was sworn in in April. Last week, the Justice Department also announced it would be opening a Title IX investigation in California
and filed a statement of interest in support of a federal lawsuit over state law A.B. 1266, which states that a 'pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil's records.' Title IX is the federal law that bars sex discrimination in schools.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously sent letters to California, Maine and Minnesota warning that they would face legal action if they did not obey federal law and Trump's February executive order on trans athletes. In April, the Justice Department sued Maine's Education Department, and shortly after, Minnesota preemptively sued the Trump administration, calling Trump's executive order unconstitutional.
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